Election

A Hong Kong answer to the Godfather Trilogy

Probably no three words in movie culture conjure a more specific image than the following: Hong Kong gangster. Fairly or not, they evoke the great body of work by John Woo and his imitators and the directors he imitated in the early '80s. These gents had a great deal of fun with the old conventions invented in Hollywood in the '30s, and their tropes were so seductive they've become world cinema tropes: men flying through the air in slow motion with an automatic pistol in each hand, excess spillage of blood, explosions and car crashes everywhere, a conceit that action sequences were like musical numbers and a movie paid no attention to interior logic but, like musicals, merely engineered their way to the next blast-o-rama as easily if illogically as possible.

But the Chinese, when few were looking, morphed. Their gangster pictures became less frenetic, more character-driven, more naturalistic, less extravagant, more ironic. This was most obvious in "Infernal Affairs," the dense drama that was adapted for the American screen as "The Departed," and the argument is closed with the arrival of the superb "Election."

The film, by director Johnny To, a veteran of the Hong Kong gangster scene, follows the lead of "Infernal Affairs": dense, demanding concentration, lacking any romantic (but plenty of sordid) violence, extremely involving and rewarding of careful attention. In many reviews, I've seen them compared to the "Godfather" films of Francis Ford Coppola, presumably because they are about a competition for what is essentially the Godfather job in the clan. But To's two movies are more like "The Sopranos." The comparison is based on their sense of character: Each of the many gangsters has a specific personality, sometimes a little screwy, and egos are in play as much as serious tactical consideration.

The movie follows the plotting and counterplotting as various killers, commandos, cops and wives come into play. It takes you into a world and makes you believe it so hard you want a cigarette, a beer and a really cool pair of shades. (S. Hunter, Washington Post)

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus

International Film Series

(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.

First Person Cinema

C.U. Film Program

(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.

Celebrating Stan

Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.

C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.

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Tickets
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IFS screens films in Muenzinger
Auditorium, west of Folsom Football Stadium. First Person Cinema events screen
in the VAC basement auditorium on select Mondays. Celebrating Stan screens
in ATLAS 100. Admission (unless otherwise noted): $9 general admission, $7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens.
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If you want to be
guaranteed a seat please arrive early. Tickets go on sale 30 minutes
before showtime.